Updates!
Well, I haven't been on my blog for awhile (although I have created new posts, I haven't been able to publish them, but we got the computer fixed so I think problems are solved!). I will start by saying that, in general, 2010 was definitely not as awesome as 2009 was.
In 2009, I ended the year with a 2:56:58 Chicago Marathon, shocking and impressing a lot of family and friends along the way. I always run the Memphis Marathon to see two of my friends from college, so decided to still do that. I ended up running a 3:05, good enough for 5th place, but had to stop and walk a few times... I guess that's what happens after you run your PR by 15minutes 6 weeks prior... Well, turns out that was good enough for 5th place, just barely missing the prize money. Ryan also just barely missed the prize money (in his case, the top three guys got DQd since they ran the ending of the 5k course but still got money because it wasn't their fault, and then the next 3 males got money as well--Ry was one or two places off!). SO, we decided to look into prize money marathons.
Mercedes Marathon 2010
I will first admit that this probably wasn't the smartest move ever, but you have to remember that Ryan and I like winning money at races because we would eventually like to be able to save all of that money and get a condo together. So, we found one: Mercedes Marathon on Valentine's Day weekend. How romantic? For us, yes. We were hooked up: the hotel was a 5star hotel AND was literally a block from the start of the race. The only downside is that the town is pretty vacant at night, and we might have been a little scared for our lives while walking around looking for a dinner place!
Anyway, we had looked at the entry list the night before at the expo and Ryan decided to jump into the 1/2 instead of the full. Probably a great idea for both him and for me. The course was a two-loop course, so Ryan ran a few miles with me around mile 13 to kind of recap his race. He did GREAT! Now it was my turn... Ryan said as soon as he saw me, he saw "the face." "The face" is an expression I get when I'm just dead tired and think I can't go any longer (I no longer do that!). He was a little nervous for me, but knew I could make it through. When I saw him a mile from the finish, I got SO excited and started going a little faster. I even passed a female that was pretty far ahead of me. I ended up placing 4th with a 3:00:49. I was VERY upset with my time because during mile 3, my Garmin clocked me at a 5:55 (which I obviously knew meant it was short), and so to make up for this, the last .2 was actually .5, which ended up making the course long! I was very upset as I knew from mile 13 on that if I continued my pace, I'd easily break 3 again. Oh well, I got 4th place, good enough for $350, which was definitely needed.
Boston Marathon 2010
Again, 2010 was not my best (or smartest) year. Ryan and I had already registered to run Boston, which was 2 months after Mercedes. However, I don't regret any of it. Boston was AMAZING and one of those races that you really just have to do for the experience. It was even more meaningful to me as my students were learning about the exact things I was seeing! I took a TON of pictures and the kids loved them:) Race morning, Ryan told me that he was going to go out with the leaders and just hang for as long as he could. TV stations and photographers captured the moment and it is REALLY cool to see your boyfriend running with RYAN HALL and the likes. After about 2.5 miles, he came back to me. We had decided that I would start off at sub-3 pace and just hold it for as long as I could. I thought I'd make it about half way as my legs I could tell were still not fully recovered (although really, what can you expect when you do Chicago, Memphis, Mercedes then Boston in a matter of 6 months!). I made it to about 12 miles and Ryan said it just wasn't worth it. He could tell my breathing had become much more labored and that I was going to exhaust myself if I kept trying to push for sub-3. He was right. He always is. He helped me to be okay with running 7:30s the rest of the way. If I hadn't had Ryan with me, I'm sure the rest of my 2010 year would have been so messed up.
Galena Du--PRO CARD!
About a month after Boston, Ryan and I went to Galena to run in a du/tri in hopes of me earning my Pro card. I did! The year-long bike workout plan (plus the computrainer) helped me to earn my Pro card! It was amazing:) And, the winners got a bottle of champagne and a great prize package at Chestnut Mountain, which we later used in October.
FIRST HALF IRONMAN--Buffalo Springs Lake, June 2010
Ryan had convinced me to do a 1/2 Ironman earlier this year. I had never been to Texas, so I figured what the heck (kidding, Ryan was already signed up, so I signed up too). We had been using the computrainer a lot, but I had never actually finished the course. We drove through THE WORST weather I had ever experienced, so were happy when we finally arrived. WOW, was it hot! I didn't know how I'd survive. On race day, my swim was better than normal (Jess, I credit you for your patience with me in the water!), my bike helped me pass a TON of girls, and my run was one of the best female runs overall! On the run, I knew (it was kind of an out and back course) that I was 5th place going into it. I passed one girl pretty quickly. The next one took a bit more work (although, to be honest, I didn't think I'd pass her at all since I saw her wearing a college uniform and she looked TOUGH--I also later found out she's really good!). With 2 miles to go, I surged around this girl and she went with me for a bit but fell back. I really thought I wouldn't be able to keep ahead. It just goes to show you what kind of race these 1/2 Ironman events are! The final girl, I saw her at 1.5 miles to go. I was pretty sore from surging past the previous girl, and I knew the one that was right ahead. She was on the U of I team, not the same year Ryan was, but they knew each other. He had told me before that her run was where she struggled at in the beginning but he's pretty sure I could beat her. So, literally .5 to go, I am finally right on her tail to pass her... she goes "You're Ryan's girlfriend, aren't you?" and I answered yes (what, was I going to lie?) and she SPRINTED. I mean SPRINTED. I tried to go with her, but almost fell over. She beat me by 9 seconds and qualified for Kona. Moral of the story: wait until the very end to pass someone that you don't know! It was still a fun experience and I can't wait until 2012/2013 to compete in some more!
Steelhead 1/2 Ironman--July 2010
Well, I knew going into this one that I wasn't as ready as I had been for BSL. I had stopped doing a lot of swimming due to my work schedules and just wasn't mentally in it. The swim was awful. I was one of the last waves and, even though I was happy to be passing people, got kicked in the face a LOT and my goggles kept coming off. Onto the bike... it was raining. Not quite what I like, but just like at PowerMan Alabama (I didn't write about this one: it was in March and one of the hardest races I have ever done, especially since the whole bike was in the rain and on HUGE hills--one male racer was taken away by an ambulance), I knew that if I raced smart and slowed a little, I'd be okay. Definitely could tell I hadn't been biking NEARLY as much as when I raced BSL, but my run was something to be semi-proud of. 1:34 1/2 marathon... although it wasn't one of the fastest (2nd in my age group), I'm still proud of it since I didn't give up.
During the summer, I had been offered a teaching job in Memphis and Ryan had been offered a job by PowerBar. Ryan accepted his job and I turned down mine. Throughout the summer, I took on WAY too many jobs as I hadn't even been offered a teaching job yet. My training really suffered and before I knew it, it was the weekend of the Wisconsin Ironman (which Ryan was both racing and working at) and I had yet to get a 20miler in (this is the second weekend of September--yep, BAD news). I rocked out an AWESOME 20 miler (10miles at Marathon Pace, 10 miles regular) but definitely felt the effects of it for awhile.
Chicago Marathon
I will start by saying that Chicago has always been a HUGE hit or miss for me. 2007 (yes, the year of the terrrrrrible heat that they closed it down because of) was my first Chicago and the only goal was to finish it with dad. 2008 was again a hot year and I blew up at mile 16 with blisters bleeding through my shoes. Thank God Nic and his college friend Dan were there, because I thought I was just going to drop out (after medical wrapped up my feet and drained the remaining blisters, I finished the marathon painfully). 2009 was the best year ever, and then there was 2010. I 100% blame myself: I raced in a pro duathlon race the weekend before (I was wanting to show that I deserved to be a pro as I had yet to race anything pro yet). Obviously, I wasn't recovered and, with doing minimal marathon training, I suffered within the first two miles. My legs felt dead. I told myself I have to finish: Nic is doing his first one, we are doing it in memory of grandma and grandpa Swift, and dad is doing it too. Unfortunately, as soon as I saw Ryan's friend John working the aid station at mile 12, I dropped. I was heaving and almost passed out; I called mom to let her know, and she was glad I was smart about it.
Monumental Marathon as a training run?
Since Chicago was so bad, I contacted Cari Setzler, who I had trained with for Chicago 2009. She told me I needed to find a coach that wasn't myself and wasn't my boyfriend. I immediately started searching but realized how expensive coaches are when you don't have a full-time job. Even with my teaching salary, I could have afforded a coach, but just making money through subbing (which is so unreliable), I couldn't. Thank God Cari is the awesome person she is: we worked out a deal and she started coaching me. The first thought was if I would run a marathon for 2010 or just start training for 2011. Of course, being the competitive person I am, I told her I wanted to run a marathon for the confidence that I can still run sub-3. We decided on Memphis as it was a course I was familiar with and I could easily compare my time to the past two years. I treated Monumental as a training run, but was feeling SO good (and in the company of other Fast Trackers) that I wish I would have completed it. I guarantee I would have easily broken 3, probably close to a 2:55. But, it was a training run.
Memphis Marathon
What is it with my bad luck with hot marathons? Memphis is NEVER hot. Never. The START of this year's marathon was 55...that's like almost a record high for Memphis in the morning in December (no joke). Obviously, my feet weren't used to this (I had tried new shoes since the ones I wore at Chicago tore up my feet) and at mile 8, I got the SAME blisters I had in Chicago 2008... I dropped out. I have never had a more disappointing year in running. It's not like me to drop out of a race, but having a coach helps you think differently. We had decided that if I wasn't feeling it, I wouldn't finish it. No point in having to delay our 2011 training by "half-assing" a marathon in 2010.
So... 2010 wasn't the best year for running. Quite frankly, with my two wonderful grandparents passing, it wasn't the best year of anything for me. I was not very focused and pretty negative throughout the August-October as my grandparents and their support meant so much to my family and me. However, I know that God is taking care of them and everything happens for a reason.
BRING ON 2011!
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
John Kurtz 5k
Ever pay $10 for a race and win money from it? That was a first for me! We didn't really get to train too much on the Island (the longest loop we could make was .2miles), so my legs were still feeling a little tired from the race on Saturday/from not working out too much. Last year, top five won money, so that's all I was going for.
It was a windy/hot/humid day and I was not feeling well at all. I went out way too fast and paid for it at the end. Denisa C (from Michigan, comes and kicks butt and wins lots of money at all the races) was there and so was Karen Prisby from Fleet Feet, so I knew they'd beat me. Then I saw Kristin West from the Dick Pond racing team. She usually beats me by 1minute or so, so I locked in on getting fourth. After the first mile, I slowed up a bit (5:57 and not feeling well). I ran the next two miles at 6:27 pace and finished in fourth with a 19:57 time (the course was .1 long and hillly, not so much fun).
Good thing I got fourth because the awards only went three deep overall this year. I ended up winning my second money race ($150) by getting first in the 20-29 age group. Ryan's little brothers ran hard (and you could see it at the end!) but didn't get close to their PR's... it was a hard day for all of us:( Ryan's aunts and grandparents were there and cheering us on. It was nice to hear someone cheering for you the whole race, even when you are feeling bad, because it really did help me maintain focus and beat out that fifth place girl:)
Next race... FREEEEE DICK POND 5k on Saturday... GOTTA BREAK 19!
It was a windy/hot/humid day and I was not feeling well at all. I went out way too fast and paid for it at the end. Denisa C (from Michigan, comes and kicks butt and wins lots of money at all the races) was there and so was Karen Prisby from Fleet Feet, so I knew they'd beat me. Then I saw Kristin West from the Dick Pond racing team. She usually beats me by 1minute or so, so I locked in on getting fourth. After the first mile, I slowed up a bit (5:57 and not feeling well). I ran the next two miles at 6:27 pace and finished in fourth with a 19:57 time (the course was .1 long and hillly, not so much fun).
Good thing I got fourth because the awards only went three deep overall this year. I ended up winning my second money race ($150) by getting first in the 20-29 age group. Ryan's little brothers ran hard (and you could see it at the end!) but didn't get close to their PR's... it was a hard day for all of us:( Ryan's aunts and grandparents were there and cheering us on. It was nice to hear someone cheering for you the whole race, even when you are feeling bad, because it really did help me maintain focus and beat out that fifth place girl:)
Next race... FREEEEE DICK POND 5k on Saturday... GOTTA BREAK 19!
LifeTime Fitness Triathlon... my 2nd Olympic Distance Tri
I've been wanting to do the LifeTime Fitness Triathlon since Tiffany, Stephanie, and I talked about doing it as a team my sophomore year in high school. Most of the weekends that it's been on, I've been working so would watch it on tv. Well, this year, my triathlon loving boyfriend got me much more into tri's than I have been before, and I signed up for it the second we got back from Hy-Vee.
We left for Minneapolis on Friday at about 7am and got to the Expo a little after 1pm. We got our race packets and got a surprise... a NICE TYR/LifeTime Fitness backpack. I'm sure Ryan will have pictures of it up soon on his website, so be sure to look! Anyway, the Expo was pretty disappointing coming off of the great Expo at Hy-Vee. Ryan says I was spoiled by having Hy-Vee be my first tri, because normally they arent' all that great. Anyway, after we went to the Expo, we went to the race site and did a couple of loops from the course on the bike and by running. After, I had a thought... we were in MN, that's where LifeTime Fitness headquarters are, why not go to the main Corporate office LifeTime? We looked it up and saw that Chanhassen was only about 20minutes away from where we were, soooo drove there. Well, I'm not gonna lie... I was pretty disappointed to see that all it was was a fancier version (lighter material color on the outside of the building, darker colored wood on the inside) of the LifeTime I work at. Oh well, I guess I can say that I've been to the Corporate LifeTime.
Anyway, we were staying with my aunt and uncle so went to their house (which I wish I took pics of because it really is just such a unique house!). My aunt took us out to dinner...we went to the Cheesecake Factory (my alltime fave restaurant!) and got WAYYYY too much food! But of course it was all delicious:) We walked around the mall for awhile and noticed the super long line coming out of Apple (the new iPhone was just released). Well, when we got back to the car, we noticed that it was still really hot (I forgot to mention... it was 95 degrees and really sticky/humid out) but now it was really windy and the sky was yellowish. We drove to my aunts, unloaded my car, and got inside JUST in time. It started getting even windier and started raining just as we finished! Luckily, my uncle (who was flying in from yet another travel trip:)) made it in and was able to see us before we went to bed.
The morning came quickly as it always does before triathlons. We woke up at 445am to go get all of our stuff set up at the transition area (in this tri it was normal and only had one transition area). My race number was 640 and it was kind of nice because it was an easy location for me to find every time. The time that we had before the race flew by really fast! We had to fix the brakes on my bike, set things up, get our wetsuits on, make last minute bathroom breaks, etc. Before I knew it, Ryan (racing in the Elite division) was up! I had about 20minutes before his so just stood around watching. I was finally up! I raced in the age group race, 20-24 female. There were 36 females in my age group. This set up was different from Hy-Vee; we didn't all start at the same time. Rather, we started in number order. 639 went first, then 3 seconds later, I got my running start into the water. The swim was a triangle, and for the most part I swam straight, so that was nice. I came out of the water at 34:16 and in 19th place, yikes. I had a lot of catching up to do! I knew a lot of people passed me (I need a LOT of improving on my swim!) but didn't realize so many. My transition was SLOW... about 2:30. My bike felt awesome! There were a lot of sharp turns, so lots of slowing down, but the time was about the same as at Hy-Vee, which I was disappointed with until I realized how different the courses were. Onto the run... I ran about the same time as I did for the Barrington 10k, 41:54. I had the third fastest run split... and a girl who runs a 4:30 mile had the fastest, sooo I don't feel too bad about my time!
Overall, I finished 6th in my age group with a 2:41:54. I was planning on breaking 2:40 this race, so I was pretty bummed when I saw my finishing time. However, Ryan was there (as always:)) to comfort me at the end. He had been done for over 40 minutes (about 2:02, and he started 20mins before me) and was looking at the results and saw that everyone who competed at Hy-Vee was slower at LifeTime than Hy-Vee by over a minute, and I had improved by over 2! So that was much happier news than my time. Ryan didn't have the race he wanted, but still did really well for all of the hard training and racing he's been doing. We are for sure going back next year, only this time, we will go up earlier (so we aren't tired from a 6 1/2 hour drive the day before) and can shop at the Mall of America and go out with Andrea after the race!
After the race, we drove another six hours to go to The Island, an Island off of Door County, WI, for a family reunion type thing for Ryan's dad's side of the family. It was a LOT of fun:)
We left for Minneapolis on Friday at about 7am and got to the Expo a little after 1pm. We got our race packets and got a surprise... a NICE TYR/LifeTime Fitness backpack. I'm sure Ryan will have pictures of it up soon on his website, so be sure to look! Anyway, the Expo was pretty disappointing coming off of the great Expo at Hy-Vee. Ryan says I was spoiled by having Hy-Vee be my first tri, because normally they arent' all that great. Anyway, after we went to the Expo, we went to the race site and did a couple of loops from the course on the bike and by running. After, I had a thought... we were in MN, that's where LifeTime Fitness headquarters are, why not go to the main Corporate office LifeTime? We looked it up and saw that Chanhassen was only about 20minutes away from where we were, soooo drove there. Well, I'm not gonna lie... I was pretty disappointed to see that all it was was a fancier version (lighter material color on the outside of the building, darker colored wood on the inside) of the LifeTime I work at. Oh well, I guess I can say that I've been to the Corporate LifeTime.
Anyway, we were staying with my aunt and uncle so went to their house (which I wish I took pics of because it really is just such a unique house!). My aunt took us out to dinner...we went to the Cheesecake Factory (my alltime fave restaurant!) and got WAYYYY too much food! But of course it was all delicious:) We walked around the mall for awhile and noticed the super long line coming out of Apple (the new iPhone was just released). Well, when we got back to the car, we noticed that it was still really hot (I forgot to mention... it was 95 degrees and really sticky/humid out) but now it was really windy and the sky was yellowish. We drove to my aunts, unloaded my car, and got inside JUST in time. It started getting even windier and started raining just as we finished! Luckily, my uncle (who was flying in from yet another travel trip:)) made it in and was able to see us before we went to bed.
The morning came quickly as it always does before triathlons. We woke up at 445am to go get all of our stuff set up at the transition area (in this tri it was normal and only had one transition area). My race number was 640 and it was kind of nice because it was an easy location for me to find every time. The time that we had before the race flew by really fast! We had to fix the brakes on my bike, set things up, get our wetsuits on, make last minute bathroom breaks, etc. Before I knew it, Ryan (racing in the Elite division) was up! I had about 20minutes before his so just stood around watching. I was finally up! I raced in the age group race, 20-24 female. There were 36 females in my age group. This set up was different from Hy-Vee; we didn't all start at the same time. Rather, we started in number order. 639 went first, then 3 seconds later, I got my running start into the water. The swim was a triangle, and for the most part I swam straight, so that was nice. I came out of the water at 34:16 and in 19th place, yikes. I had a lot of catching up to do! I knew a lot of people passed me (I need a LOT of improving on my swim!) but didn't realize so many. My transition was SLOW... about 2:30. My bike felt awesome! There were a lot of sharp turns, so lots of slowing down, but the time was about the same as at Hy-Vee, which I was disappointed with until I realized how different the courses were. Onto the run... I ran about the same time as I did for the Barrington 10k, 41:54. I had the third fastest run split... and a girl who runs a 4:30 mile had the fastest, sooo I don't feel too bad about my time!
Overall, I finished 6th in my age group with a 2:41:54. I was planning on breaking 2:40 this race, so I was pretty bummed when I saw my finishing time. However, Ryan was there (as always:)) to comfort me at the end. He had been done for over 40 minutes (about 2:02, and he started 20mins before me) and was looking at the results and saw that everyone who competed at Hy-Vee was slower at LifeTime than Hy-Vee by over a minute, and I had improved by over 2! So that was much happier news than my time. Ryan didn't have the race he wanted, but still did really well for all of the hard training and racing he's been doing. We are for sure going back next year, only this time, we will go up earlier (so we aren't tired from a 6 1/2 hour drive the day before) and can shop at the Mall of America and go out with Andrea after the race!
After the race, we drove another six hours to go to The Island, an Island off of Door County, WI, for a family reunion type thing for Ryan's dad's side of the family. It was a LOT of fun:)
4th of July Weekend
I decided to do two races 4th of July weekend. The first race was the Run for the Arts Barrington 5k and 10k. I run a 4th of July race every year with my dad, and for the past couple years, we had been doing this one. Welllll, this year, he decided that he wanted to ride his road bike from Crystal Lake, IL to Henry, IL (small town by Peoria) with his buddy who is just as crazy as him. Luckily, my mom and I had a Chicago trip planned with my aunts and cousins for an aunt's 50th birthday and talked about running a 4th of July race together on our way down. Thanks to our train ride down, my mom and I decided that she would run in the race on Friday, making this run one of my first races ever with my mom since she "started running again."
Race morning comes and, after working a 10 hour day at LifeTime the day before, I was NOT ready at all. My legs were hurting a bit from a Brick workout Wednesday and from the standing at the Front Desk on Thursday. Buuuut, I decided to stop being a baby and run as fast as I had to in order to win. Luckily, it wasn't too fast. All of the super fast people decided to do the 5k (although after doin the 10k for the past two years, I can't imagine why... sarcastic, the 10k is SUPER hilly). My mom and I just stood around for awhile waiting for the race to start. When it did, I took off, determined to pass the boys with the blaring music on their iPods in front of me. The first mile was good, 625 just like Ry and I had talked about doing. The first mile is relatively flat, so I decided to save up a bit for the next five to come. Well, the next mile was a 645 and I looked behind me to find the second place girl and saw she was pretty far back. I decided, since I was running a 5k on Sunday and hoping to get out of my 19minute rut, I would save up a bit and just run to beat my time from last year and win. Basically, the rest of the miles, I pushed another guy with me and we finished pretty close together. I finished in a 41:30, 2 minutes faster thanmy 7minute pace last year (it was a training run). I went back and got my mom... she finished 17th female and 1st in her age group and beat my dad's time from last year... she had a great race!:)
On to the rest of the 4th festivities... Sunday was the First Annual Crystal Lake 4th of July run. It was to benefit the American Cancer Society as the person whose honor it was created in passed away from cancer. The race organizer is a family friend, so doing this race was a no brainer. Well, we get to the site (Lippold Park) and turns out, there were about as many volunteers (college kids!) as there were runners, which was sad to see:( But it was on a crushed limestone type path the whole way, not so much fun or easy to PR on. I went through the first mile on pace to break 19, but started falling off pace halfway through. It was pretty hot out again too, so I was just hoping to stay in the position I was (fifth overall at the first mile). Right after the first mile, I passed two guys (that got me going a bit!) and then again right before the two mile, one of the guys in front of me literally just stopped to walk. Did I mention Ryan ran this with me? Because he was the one to push me at about 2.5miles to go get the first place runner and WIN MY FIRST RACE OVERALL EVER! It was pretty exciting. I mean, even though it was a small race, it was still pretty exciting to WIN!:)
Next race to be recapped... LifeTime Fitness Triathlon July 12th.
Race morning comes and, after working a 10 hour day at LifeTime the day before, I was NOT ready at all. My legs were hurting a bit from a Brick workout Wednesday and from the standing at the Front Desk on Thursday. Buuuut, I decided to stop being a baby and run as fast as I had to in order to win. Luckily, it wasn't too fast. All of the super fast people decided to do the 5k (although after doin the 10k for the past two years, I can't imagine why... sarcastic, the 10k is SUPER hilly). My mom and I just stood around for awhile waiting for the race to start. When it did, I took off, determined to pass the boys with the blaring music on their iPods in front of me. The first mile was good, 625 just like Ry and I had talked about doing. The first mile is relatively flat, so I decided to save up a bit for the next five to come. Well, the next mile was a 645 and I looked behind me to find the second place girl and saw she was pretty far back. I decided, since I was running a 5k on Sunday and hoping to get out of my 19minute rut, I would save up a bit and just run to beat my time from last year and win. Basically, the rest of the miles, I pushed another guy with me and we finished pretty close together. I finished in a 41:30, 2 minutes faster thanmy 7minute pace last year (it was a training run). I went back and got my mom... she finished 17th female and 1st in her age group and beat my dad's time from last year... she had a great race!:)
On to the rest of the 4th festivities... Sunday was the First Annual Crystal Lake 4th of July run. It was to benefit the American Cancer Society as the person whose honor it was created in passed away from cancer. The race organizer is a family friend, so doing this race was a no brainer. Well, we get to the site (Lippold Park) and turns out, there were about as many volunteers (college kids!) as there were runners, which was sad to see:( But it was on a crushed limestone type path the whole way, not so much fun or easy to PR on. I went through the first mile on pace to break 19, but started falling off pace halfway through. It was pretty hot out again too, so I was just hoping to stay in the position I was (fifth overall at the first mile). Right after the first mile, I passed two guys (that got me going a bit!) and then again right before the two mile, one of the guys in front of me literally just stopped to walk. Did I mention Ryan ran this with me? Because he was the one to push me at about 2.5miles to go get the first place runner and WIN MY FIRST RACE OVERALL EVER! It was pretty exciting. I mean, even though it was a small race, it was still pretty exciting to WIN!:)
Next race to be recapped... LifeTime Fitness Triathlon July 12th.
Sunday, June 29, 2008
June races... well the last two weekends, anyway...
FIRST OLYMPIC DISTANCE TRIATHLON... June 22nd, HyVee Triathlon, West Des Moines, Iowa. For my birthday, Ryan registered me for this race (and did like five million other things for me:)) and trained me for it during the last semester of school (although I didn't find out til my birthday that I would actually be doing it). I've noticed that ever since Ry started training me, I haven'tbeen getting hurt! This is great news because I'm usually hurt like every other month from running (probably too much); so far I've made it three and a half months without being hurt! Anyway, so race weekend is finally here... I went with Ryan, his brothers (Jason, 10, and Alex, 7), and his dad. Jason and Alex were signed up to do the Kids Duathlon (long story short, the Triathlon was changed to a duathlon like two weeks before the race and then changed back three days before due to the terrrrrible flooding in Iowa). The Kids Duathlon was on Saturday, and they both did awesome! Jason came in fourth out of like sixty kids and Alex was ninth out of the sixty kids in his age group too. It definitely set the mood for the weekend and made me even more excited to race (and nervous too!). After their races (we were outside like all day...my sister noticed when I went into work on Monday super tan!), we set up our bikes, worked out a little, and then headed back to the place we were staying for dinner and early bed.
330am wakeup call was NOT very fun on Sunday:( But usually once I'm up, I'm good to go for the day. So we drove over to "T2" (which means the second transition stop... in most triathlons there is only one transition, but due to the flooding, they had to basically redo the whole course and everything and it ended up having two transitions), set up things and headed back to make sure everything was fine in T1. Before I knew it, it was time for Ryan to head off.
As Ryan's wave went into the water, I was more nervous than ever. Four more waves then it was my turn... but something happened with the wave before us and that delayed our start, which of course made me more anxious than before. After I found out that it was goin to be a duathlon, I really stopped swimming, so when Ryan told me that the swim was back on, I wasn't too happy. But, for the 1500 swim, I made it the whole way in 35minutes, which was under the time Ryan thought of 40minutes!
My transitions were TERRIBLE... I have no idea what took me so long, but when we looked at the results, it was almost 3 minutes! Well, I finally got my bike and couldn't get my feet in the shoes that were already clipped in, so had to pull my bike over and unclip the shoes, put them on my feet, and clip them back in. I was NOT very happy going onto the bike. It stunk even more that the first thing we encountered was a STEEEEP hill (we biked down it the day before, so we knew what was coming!). But I ended up averaging 18.4mph on the bike!
Onto the run...my strongest part:)... Well, I didn't see mile marker four or six, but the times that my watch split were 640-645... except that I had to stop to go to the bathroom, making my overall time a 7min average, yuck. BUT I finished the race with a lot of energy left and ready to do another one! My final time was 2hours 44minutes and 16seconds. Ryan thought I'd be in between 2:30 and 2:45. As soon as the race was over and we were back at Jimmy's house (where we were staying), I checked to see if the LifeTime Fitness Triathlon in Minnesota was full... luckfully (Ry's word) it wasn't! so I signed up right away!! I'm hoping to be under 2:40 at LifeTime (which I've wanted to do since Tiffany and Stephanie andI talked about it in high school!). That race is July 12th, so I'm training like crazy until then to be ready for it!
NEXT RACE... RACE TO TASTE... June 29, Chicago.
I've always gone to the Taste of Chicago, but oddly enough, I've never done the race... you'd think coming from a family of runners, SOMEONE would have known about the race, but nope, didn't know about it until Ryan told me he was going to do it. The last 5k I did before this one was the Jim Gibbons 5k on Thursday, June 19th, and I ran a 19:04...which I did at the Notre Dame 5k course when I was sick and couldn't talk... so really, I should be under 19 no problem. So I told Ryan that's what I wanted to do for my next 5k and he had me do some workouts to do that.
Race day came and it was a cold morning, so I thought for sure it'd be a great day to get a good time. Except that it started warming up. And then got really humid. The first mile was long (1.1 to be exact) so I just relied on my Garmin for the race. The first mile was a 5:50, just like it was at Jim Gibbons... oddly enough, my second mile (603) was the same as Jim Gibbons too! Right before the third mile, there was a slight uphill and I could really feel it was humid out... once again I felt like it was hard to breathe (but this time I didn't panic and cause my throat to close up!). John (Ryan's best friend) was having some chest pains going into this race so decided to hold back and run with me. Ryan caught back up to us at the end (you know, as a cooldown for after winning the race) and they were both encouraging me the whole way. We got to the third mile (616) at 1820 and I thought I'd for sure break 19 now! Ryan and John told me to pick it up and sprint, but at this point I just could NOT breathe will at all. Third place (this was a money race, top three places got money) was 13 seconds ahead:( I crossed the line in 19:01. It was not the highlight of my weekend to say the least, but on the bright side, this was a hillier course than Jim Gibbons! My next 5k will be under 19 for sure and I can't wait for that one to happen... my mom wants our family to do the Crystal Lake 4th of July 5k, so I'm thinking of doing that.
NEXT RACE: Barrington 10k on the 4th of July.
330am wakeup call was NOT very fun on Sunday:( But usually once I'm up, I'm good to go for the day. So we drove over to "T2" (which means the second transition stop... in most triathlons there is only one transition, but due to the flooding, they had to basically redo the whole course and everything and it ended up having two transitions), set up things and headed back to make sure everything was fine in T1. Before I knew it, it was time for Ryan to head off.
As Ryan's wave went into the water, I was more nervous than ever. Four more waves then it was my turn... but something happened with the wave before us and that delayed our start, which of course made me more anxious than before. After I found out that it was goin to be a duathlon, I really stopped swimming, so when Ryan told me that the swim was back on, I wasn't too happy. But, for the 1500 swim, I made it the whole way in 35minutes, which was under the time Ryan thought of 40minutes!
My transitions were TERRIBLE... I have no idea what took me so long, but when we looked at the results, it was almost 3 minutes! Well, I finally got my bike and couldn't get my feet in the shoes that were already clipped in, so had to pull my bike over and unclip the shoes, put them on my feet, and clip them back in. I was NOT very happy going onto the bike. It stunk even more that the first thing we encountered was a STEEEEP hill (we biked down it the day before, so we knew what was coming!). But I ended up averaging 18.4mph on the bike!
Onto the run...my strongest part:)... Well, I didn't see mile marker four or six, but the times that my watch split were 640-645... except that I had to stop to go to the bathroom, making my overall time a 7min average, yuck. BUT I finished the race with a lot of energy left and ready to do another one! My final time was 2hours 44minutes and 16seconds. Ryan thought I'd be in between 2:30 and 2:45. As soon as the race was over and we were back at Jimmy's house (where we were staying), I checked to see if the LifeTime Fitness Triathlon in Minnesota was full... luckfully (Ry's word) it wasn't! so I signed up right away!! I'm hoping to be under 2:40 at LifeTime (which I've wanted to do since Tiffany and Stephanie andI talked about it in high school!). That race is July 12th, so I'm training like crazy until then to be ready for it!
NEXT RACE... RACE TO TASTE... June 29, Chicago.
I've always gone to the Taste of Chicago, but oddly enough, I've never done the race... you'd think coming from a family of runners, SOMEONE would have known about the race, but nope, didn't know about it until Ryan told me he was going to do it. The last 5k I did before this one was the Jim Gibbons 5k on Thursday, June 19th, and I ran a 19:04...which I did at the Notre Dame 5k course when I was sick and couldn't talk... so really, I should be under 19 no problem. So I told Ryan that's what I wanted to do for my next 5k and he had me do some workouts to do that.
Race day came and it was a cold morning, so I thought for sure it'd be a great day to get a good time. Except that it started warming up. And then got really humid. The first mile was long (1.1 to be exact) so I just relied on my Garmin for the race. The first mile was a 5:50, just like it was at Jim Gibbons... oddly enough, my second mile (603) was the same as Jim Gibbons too! Right before the third mile, there was a slight uphill and I could really feel it was humid out... once again I felt like it was hard to breathe (but this time I didn't panic and cause my throat to close up!). John (Ryan's best friend) was having some chest pains going into this race so decided to hold back and run with me. Ryan caught back up to us at the end (you know, as a cooldown for after winning the race) and they were both encouraging me the whole way. We got to the third mile (616) at 1820 and I thought I'd for sure break 19 now! Ryan and John told me to pick it up and sprint, but at this point I just could NOT breathe will at all. Third place (this was a money race, top three places got money) was 13 seconds ahead:( I crossed the line in 19:01. It was not the highlight of my weekend to say the least, but on the bright side, this was a hillier course than Jim Gibbons! My next 5k will be under 19 for sure and I can't wait for that one to happen... my mom wants our family to do the Crystal Lake 4th of July 5k, so I'm thinking of doing that.
NEXT RACE: Barrington 10k on the 4th of July.
So I created a blog....
So today I decided to create a blog because, well, I really liked when Brittany had hers at school (until it was taken down for unknown reasons...) and also because I really like reading Ryan's so thought, well my life is pretty interesting (sometimes) so I can write about it too (yes I know this is a really long sentence, but if you know anything about me, you know that I talk in kind of long sentences anyway so it's fine).
Ryan's blog is a lot about his races, soooo here's a recap of June to start off my BLOG!
Ryan's blog is a lot about his races, soooo here's a recap of June to start off my BLOG!
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